Rapid extraction of event participants in caused motion events.

Frances Wilson, University of Delaware

Anna Papafragou, University of Delaware

Ann Bunger, University of Delaware

John Trueswell, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

When viewing a complex event, it is necessary to identify and
calculate the relationships between different entities in the event. For example,
when viewing a caused motion event (e.g. a man raking leaves into a basket.),
people need to identify the Agent (man), the affected object or Patient (leaves),
the Instrument (rake) and the Goal (basket). In this paper we explore how this
process of event apprehension proceeds using eye-tracking methodology. Our study
indicates that viewers extract event components rapidly, but some components can
be extracted faster than others. Moreover, there is a structure to saccade
patterns when participants are asked to identify specific event components. In
caused motion events, attention is allocated to the Patient during the early
stages of processing even when the Patient is not the target. We discuss
implications of this work for how people perceive complex events.